


Happy Birthday!

by everamazingfe



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: AHOT6 - Freeform, Angst, Dear Ryan I'm sorry, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Misunderstandings, Multi, Panic Attacks, Stupidity, it's not really kidnapping though, just the lads being fools, the ramwood is very briefly implied but it's there if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-17 05:20:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15454200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everamazingfe/pseuds/everamazingfe
Summary: It's Ryan's birthday and the Lads have a plan. Unfortunately, the Lads are very bad at making plans (and empathy, it seems).





	Happy Birthday!

**Author's Note:**

> Also posted to my tumblr transboyvagabond.tumblr.com

Ryan hates planes. Flying with the crew so much has made him fearful that a professional pilot will try to pull dumb stunts like a barrel roll, landing on a mountain, flying between two narrow buildings, or landing on another plane. On purpose. His more rational fear of flying has him shaking with every bit of turbulence, fearful of a crash. When a plane lands on the runway, he is always terrified that it'll never slow down before reaching the unloading ramp.

Ryan also hates being a passenger in any vehicle for the same reason. Car crashes are inevitable with the busy streets of Los Santos, and it's only a matter of time before he doesn't walk away from one of them. The hairpin turns and rapid speeds the crew loves to do are fine, when he's a witness on the street corner, not in the passenger seat.

He's perfectly fine in the driver's seat, but even behind the wheel of a plane, he's anxious. Geoff tells him he has a fear of not being in control of a situation, not of planes or cars or whatever the fuck. Ryan tells him to fuck off and to sleep on the couch that night. He knows that Geoff is right and that it's 100% the case because cars are easy to control behind the wheel but even piloting a plane, there's so much beyond his control that he hates it.

It comes to a breaking point when the lads come up with a brilliant idea for Ryan's birthday. A surprise party, but because they know they can't do it in the penthouse, they'll pretend to kidnap Ryan. Michael and Gavin think it's brilliant, Jeremy doesn't but they'll give him an extra slice of cake so who cares. They didn't run it by Jack or Geoff beforehand, they just told them what time to be at the warehouse.

Gavin thought the plan was foolproof. Catch Ryan off guard, cuff him or something because he'd absolutely try to kill them, and blindfold him so he wouldn't know where they were going. It was foolproof until they actually went to execute the plan. Ryan had nothing but panic coursing through his veins as he was grabbed from behind, and hand over his mouth as he was pulled backward. A set of hands put zip ties around his hands while another tied something over his eyes. They were heisters, not kidnappers, it was shoddy at best but they were the Lads. Who cared?

Well, Geoff would care when he found out. Jack would absolutely care, so much so that she might kill the Lads for causing Ryan so much panic. Because the Vagabond, grace under pressure because he always had the upper hand, was crumbling. Because he did not have the upper hand, even if he broke out of the zip ties what was he going to do? Fight three guys with no weapon to his name? No. So he panicked. His chest tightened, his throat closed up, his heart grew so loud in his ears that he couldn't even think or hear it when the lads spoke to him, and his stomach twisted into knots. He didn't have control. He was at a loss of what to do. Everything went so bad so fast, and on his birthday too. It was supposed to be a good day. Hell, it had been a good day.

Ryan was going to die there, he was sure of it. It was too much all at once, and he didn't even notice it as the door opened, the blindfold and zip ties were removed, and the crew was wishing him a happy birthday.

As expected, Geoff was the first one to kick into action, yelling, “What the fuck did you three do?” despite himself as he raced over to Ryan. He guided the man to his feet and away from the Lads, a hand on his arm and an arm around his shoulders, but not too tight so Ryan knew that he’d have the option to pull away if he wanted to. If he needed to.

Jack wasn’t that far behind Geoff, but she didn’t go to comfort Ryan. She was a ball of rage and fury because no one hurt her boys. Especially when the ones doing the hurting were her boys. “Are you all stupid? I mean, really? Really? You all have half a mind to pile back into that van and drive away before I cut the gas line and light it on fire.”

“I just want to say that I didn’t really want to do this, I was just bribed with ca-”

“I don’t give a fuck why you did it. Leave.”

“If anything we thought he’d try to kill us! We didn’t think he’d act like such a wimp!” Gavin cried in defense, obviously oblivious to all the panic and anger around him. “I mean, you should’ve seen him. He just crumbled! Should be thankful it was us and not someone who actually wanted to hurt him. He wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

Jack narrowed her eyes as she looked at Gavin, hands clenched into fists at her sides. Jeremy shifted awkwardly on his feet before starting to make his way back into the open door of the van. “Um, Gav? I think the point of it is that, uh... Ryan did think we were someone who actually wanted to hurt him,” he said quietly before sliding the door shut behind him. Well, at least Jack would be able to tell Geoff that not all of the lads were totally incompetent.

“Well, that’s just stupid.” It was Michael’s turn to speak up, but it didn’t help the situation or their argument any. In fact, Jack just chose to ignore them, turning her attention to where Geoff and Ryan were now sat on the floor.

“He better get the best damn birthday gifts ever from you three for ruining his party,” she stated firmly before leaving the trio to go over to the duo.

Ryan was sat with his legs crossed, head in his hands while Geoff sat right pressed up against his side, arms wrapped around him. The younger gent usually hated people right up on him like that when he was under a lot of stress, but this was different. Geoff was comforting, and safe, and as he was sitting there holding himself together he felt another pair of arms around him, rubbing his side gently. He could hear two voices murmuring quietly, but his ears couldn’t focus on the words.

“Did you find out why they did it?”

“No, but I did find out we’ve got some real assholes on our team so that’s something.”

“C’mon, Jack. They’re not that bad.” That prompted her to just look to Geoff in disbelief, nodding to the Ryan they were comforting in their arms. “Okay, so they’re a little bad. But they meant well. They wanted to do a fun thing for Ryan on his birthday because usually he just sits in his room all day.”

“They meant well, but that doesn’t change what happened. How upset he got.”

Geoff just sighed, knowing that she was right. “They should’ve known shit like this upsets him, but they didn’t. Shit went bad, and they are at fault. But I didn’t buy all this cake and all this soda just for it to go to waste so someone’s gotta eat it.”

It took a while for Ryan to finally lift his head, to look around, to talk, to stand up. No one was surprised that he acted like nothing had happened when he did, pretending like he hadn’t been sat on the floor for ten minutes. But they didn’t push with any questions, they knew better. That was just how Ryan coped with things. He’d deal about it in his own way later, writing it all down in his journal and then talking about it with his therapist (who they paid very good money not to tell about the criminality that was the root of most of Ryan’s problems). But right then? He was going to eat cake and enjoy his party, not ruin it even further.

The lads had scrambled incredibly last minute to get Ryan better birthday presents. Well, better maybe wasn’t the right word. The word ‘more’ certainly was, though.

A backup jacket, an innumerable amount of Diet Coke, jars of his favorite facepaint, so many plants that Ryan could have his own greenhouse, and a car that had the passenger seat removed so that when Ryan got into it, there was no other option but for him to be in control of the car. Those were the gifts from the lads. The gifts from the gents were a bit less in quantity but no less appreciated. A new gaming PC because Geoff swore the one he had was a thousand years old, a few cozy sweatshirts, and a large shark plush made up his gifts. Geoff said that his final gift was better given in private, and the wink that accompanied it made Ryan blush brighter than he ever had in public.

While it wasn’t the worst birthday in Ryan’s ever growing list of them, they all promised him that next year they’d do everything they could to make sure that one was the best one ever. He believed them, too. And while he wasn’t sure that they’d actually follow through, the gifts and the cake and the soda were enough to leave him with just a little bit of hope.


End file.
